I could not decide to put this in the
Gerber Thread or
Edged Tools Thread so I succumbed to my delusions of grandeur & called these X2 'Mods'
I have wanted a Gerber EAB for ages so in the spirit of MTO I got both, a standard EAB & EAB Lite. In Oz EABs can be hard to find & one local seller told me that Oz customs takes issue with money clip knives, something about being a concealed weapon
,I can not confirm that though but I did source these 2 locally to avoid having them seized.
Here are the two unmolested(besides Irwin Bimetal blades) standard at top, Lite bottom;
Things I did not like 1.Poor finger grip due to slippery smooth surface & 2. No thumb stud to make OHO easier.
I went on a bit of a jimping rampage
.
To begin with what did not work; a Dremel thin cut off wheel, you need a super steady hand, which I don't possess .What almost worked; Dremel thin diamond burrs. What worked best; just using small diamond files
, I used the thin edge of the file + a tapered file.I was thinking if you used a metal scribe to mark the surface first the Dremeling option might work better with a rough surface guide to work on
,using the Dremel on such a smooth surface invites grinder walk , I don't own a metal scribe though.
The small burs
The files
I used the standard EAB as my guinea pig as I preferred the feel in hand of the Lite better;
The Lite & you can see the finger stop at the front of the lower finger grip which I do prefer to the Standard's
In hand Lite using the thumb jimping
In Hand Standard using the index finger jimping for precision cuts
Initially I thought replacing the original fastener would be a easy swap & go , it wasn't.I did some research but could only find written reference of people doing it but no photos or what they did.The tricky thing being the fastener is quite small, I had multiple options that fitted the thread but just ended up pressing on the knife's frame but not gripping the blade, meaning the blade kinda flapped around, here is the offending hole & you can see where the fastener needs to grip the blade;
I tried some fasteners I had laying around , firstly a ex Gerber MP650 multi , it made a very good thumb stud but it's thread unfortunately was not quite long enough.I had a broken Gerber Suspension's set of fasteners & although not as good a stud as the MP650's the thread length was perfect , finally I was looking at my unused Kershaw Vapour knife & I thought that pivot fastener looks like it might work & it did
.To get the fasteners to grip the blade properly I had to make collars for them. I used some old electrical fasteners from a broken video cassette player which I cut down to make the collars. The collars are threaded but they don't have to be. Here is a photo of the original fasteners + my replacements with the collars I made;
Top right is the ex Suspension fastener & bottom right is the ex Kershaw Vapour fastener.
In place the one at the bottom is the ex Suspension top is ex Kershaw;
Some size comparison with a LM Skeletool , they really are compact. I don't even use the money/pocket clip , I just put them in my coin pocket
The end results I am super happy with my tweaked EAB's. Once I had finished working on them I did notice my preferred one , the Lite , had a bit of a wiggle in its lock up
which ticked me off a bit. I will still use it but be mindful that the lock up is not perfect also the Standard felt like something was grinding in it's pivot, more
. I tried cleaning it really well but it did not make any difference , ideally I would of pulled it apart but that pivot has a kooky tamper proof head on it. I lubed the pivot & that seems to have done the trick. As a mater of interest I weighed both & the Lite only weighs one gram less than the standard
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